Jury rules in favor of Greenwich Hospital

Daniel Tepfer

Updated 11:28 pm, Thursday, December 19, 2013

BRIDGEPORT -- Greenwich Hospital did not violate a former hospital phlebotomist's constitutional right to free speech despite her claims that she was pressured to resign after discovering contaminated blood vials in the hospital, a jury found Thursday.

"Greenwich Hospital is pleased with the jury's decision today," said hospital spokesperson Dana Marnane. "The allegations were completely unfounded and inconsistent with the facts. We are thankful that the jurors kept an open mind, evaluated the evidence on its merits and determined that Greenwich Hospital was beyond reproach in how it handled this matter."

The Superior Court jury of six women deliberated for about four hours before ruling in favor of the hospital in a lawsuit brought August 2012 by Isabel Modaffari of Bridgeport.

A defiant Modaffari later vowed that she would appeal the jury's verdict.

"I still don't believe the patients are safe," she said.

The jurors declined comment as they left the courtroom.

The 44-year-old Modaffari, who worked at the hospital six years, sued Greenwich Hospital claiming they forced her to quit in January 2012 after she talked to the FBI about contaminated vials she said she discovered.

During the weeklong trial before Judge Edward Stodolink, Modaffari said that on May 29, 2011, she had just drawn blood from a female patient in the intensive care ward when she noticed that it appeared pink in the vial. She said she checked her other unused vials and each contained a clear liquid. She said a co-worker also complained of having vials containing an unknown clear liquid.

"I was so shaken I could barely do my work the rest of the day," Modaffari said.

She said she put her vials in a hazardous-materials bag and was going to take them to the Greenwich Police, but was stopped by a supervisor who took the vials.

On June 3, 2011, Modaffari was interviewed by two FBI agents about the incident. But immediately afterward, she said, a hospital vice president confronted her and warned her not to tell the agents anything.

During the next several months, Modaffari said, she was constantly being called into the administrators' offices. At one point, she said she was handed a blank piece of paper and ordered to sign it.

In his opening argument to the jury, the hospital's lawyer, David Poppick, characterized Modaffari as a disgruntled employee who had poor performance reports and was having difficulty adapting to the hospital's new technology. He said when she quit, she told a supervisor she had to take care of her sick mother.

Poppick also downplayed the dangers of the contaminated vials, pointing out that while some bacteria was found in one, it was being used to draw blood out of -- not to inject blood into -- a patient. He said the situation was thoroughly investigated by the FBI and U.S Food and Drug Administration and no problems were found.

"There was no monkey business at Greenwich Hospital," Poppick told the jurors.